“Conference calls” as they are known allow three or more parties to a single telephone call to talk to each other at the same time and are known to be highly effective in allowing a group of people to confer with each other simultaneously. Conference calls are usually set up by one party being a “host” who has access to a switching system having the ability to conference other callers together. A conference call is usually set up by the parties dialing a telephone number and entering an access code.
Often times, a participant to a conference call dials into such a call from a switching system that will allow the participant to the conference call to place his connection in a “hold” status, by which the caller temporarily disconnects himself or herself from the conference call. A relatively well-known feature of such a local switching system is the transmission of background music or audio to a connection when a person has placed his connection status on hold. In other words, when a party to a conference call places himself on hold, the switching system through which that party connected him to the conference call will sometimes place music or other background audio into the conference call to the detriment of the other call's participants.
When a participant to a multi-party conference call temporarily drops out of a call and into a “hold” status, the substitution of that party's connection with music or other background music can interfere with the remaining party's effective use of the conference call, Thus, a need exists for a method and apparatus by which music or other background audio that might be transmitted into a conference call by a switch or switching system when a participant goes on hold, can be shut off by one or more of the remaining participants.